Personalisation, targeting & GDPR

March 1, 2018

Your advertising experience is very likely moulded by your data, or online behaviour. Whilst this may seem creepy to some, I believe it’s actually a great thing, as this means:

Users should only be targeted by advertising that is relevant to them – there’s nothing more annoying than being shown a brand or product that you have no interest in, or need for.

Brands can use their advertising budget more efficiently, targeting only people likely to convert. For example, an insurance brand using data to target users who’s insurance is almost up for renewal.

The advances in data collection and distribution have also allowed for the actual ads being delivered to be tailored. For a travel brand, we found using dynamic creative pulling in the relevant destination and real-time pricing, this saw a much higher conversion rate vs. generic messaging.

So using data, your campaigns can reach a more relevant audience, and can deliver more relevant messaging. However, brands need to be careful to strike a balance, as to not make their advertising appear “creepy”. If the personalisation doesn’t add any value to the consumer, it can seem intrusive.

Channel 4 launched their personalised All4 ads in 2014 with the “Share a coke” campaign. This complemented Coke’s campaign perfectly, with the new packaging already seeing huge shareability on social. However, recently I was inundated with ads on All4 that included my name, meaning the “wow factor” they were hoping for was really lost. These looked just to include my name for the sake of it – intelligent personalisation is key.

However on the 25th May 2018, the EU are putting into effect the most important change in data privacy regulation in 20 years – General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This is going to shake up the advertising industry, as companies will not be allowed to collect and use personal information without the person’s consent. This data includes name, email address, phone number, and also internet browsing habits collected by website cookies. With these regulations, this brings new challenges for brands, agencies and tech providers, however with challenges hopefully comes new opportunities. This could be advances in contextual targeting, or moving away from unreliable cookie-based tracking.

By tightening data regulations, this should protect consumers, hinder any rogue digital advertising cowboys and hopefully create new opportunities for brands to engage users.